RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: cassie on Sunday 17 April 05 18:03 BST (UK)
-
I have an ancestor that was working as a servant in 1891. She married in 1892 and did'nt go out to payed work following her marriage.
Does this mean she came from a really poor family....or did all working class families send there daughters out to work before they married ?????
I would be grateful for your thoughts. ;D
Thanks
-
Going out to work at that age is not a sign of extreme poverty .... more a sign of the times.
Every penny counted in working class homes and the families basically could not afford to carry passengers. Everyone worked towards their keep.
Because a married woman is not listed in many official records (including census returns) with a listed occupation this does not mean that she stayed at home .... it often meant that in practical terms she had several jobs ... keeping the house and other tasks to help the family's finances.
-
Hi Cassie,
I would add that it was only the well off who would not work before and after marriage. A lot of occupations were not open to women once they had married so they often worked within the home. My female ancestors include lots of dressmakers and laundry workers. Because their main occupation would have been seen as wife and mother most women did not give an occupation in the census. But as Falkyrn says they could well have had numerous paid jobs on top of all the unpaid work.
Debbie ;)
-
Hi Falkyrn..Thanks for your reply....my knowledge of that time is not very good, so I wasnt really sure about whether working class women worked before marriage.
Thanks again
Im sure she did work hard as they had loads of children :o ;D and as you say she probubally did do other work.
Cheers ;D
-
Hi Debbie...thanks for your reply...I have a few dressmakers as well ;D Its interesting to know that women did not give an occupation in the census.
Cheers ;D
-
Here's a note I found at the end of an enumeration district..
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,7168.0.html
The enumerator didn't feel he could leave the women's labouers unrecorded. The majority of the women do not have an occupation listed but obviously work like trojans!
Pam
;D
-
I dont have any female relatives from 1890 onwards who did not work both when single and when married!They were all educated to quite a high standard but left school around 13.This was normal and expected.
-
Talking to a great aunt at the weekend, she reminisced about her husband's grandfather, who at the age of 82 had the job of getting up in the morning, lighting the fire and making a cup of tea for his grandsons and sons, who were all miners. as Falkryn says, families had no room for passengers!
The way things are going with pensions, I can see me doing that too if I live that long! :)
cheers
Paul
-
Most of the children from my Agricultural Labourers familys in the 1891 and 1901 census are not shown as Scholars after about the age of 8 which leads me to beleive that they were working.
I know my father used to say that the boys in his family only went to school when there was'nt much work, so if it was harvest time they did'nt go!
Hubbies Aunt was born in Poplar London 1912 and left school at 14, she say's she never forgave her mother for not allowing her to stay on, her first job was as a Joe Lyons waitress.
She was the youngest girl in a family of 8, their father died in 1919 and all the boys were working fulltime by age 14.
Hubbies father used to work before and after school, he remembered his first job was pushing barrow loads of umbrella's, I think they were taken from the factory to out workers, girls and women at home, who stitched the cloth to the frames.
My own mother born 1916 was also working at 14. She was in an orphange all her life but was sent to work for an elderly lady where she cooked and cleaned in exchange for her board and lodging. She 'did a runner' at age 16 with another girl of the same age, they were supposed to be in care until their 18th birthday but left Hertfordshire for London where they also worked for Joe Lyons who found lodgings for their girls.
They could all read and write to a high standard and my Mums maths are still better than mine :D
Suey
-
I have one family in Doncaster in the early 1900s where four daughters went into 'service'. Three can be found in Doncaster, but the fourth went to Halifax. She sent postcards back to her parents and little sister, and I have them. They make fascinating reading. I might have thought that she'd be homesick or unhappy with her job, but that certainly is not reflected in the correspondence. She got on very well with the family she worked for - they even took her on holiday to Scarborough with them.
It is also interesting to note that the family was not that poor - the father finished up owning three houses in Doncaster. But further back I have found a 'tradition' in the ancestors for women working at the 'big house' (that at a time when the family was less well off). I suspect that the father saw going into 'service' as necessary preperation for life (rather like sendind a boy into the army). And no doubt the money he saved on their upkeep went towards buying those houses! (which he gave to three of the daughters).
Nigel